Nick Ramsay's Journey to Ironman... or perhaps just running really long distances over really big mountains.

September 14, 2008

Who Owns Japan’s Media?

The U.S media is often criticized for ignoring major news stories or covering them with obvious bias, and more people are becoming aware that this is because the media is owned by just five major corporations – General Electric, Time Warner, Viacom, The Walt Disney Co. and News Corporation.

The media is an incredibly powerful tool for social control, so I’ve been wondering if a similar situation exists in Japan…

The first article includes some interesting quotes that go some way to answering the question, who owns Japan’s media?

He has recently granted long, soul-baring interviews in which he has questioned the rising nationalism he has cultivated so assiduously in the pages of his newspaper, the conservative Yomiuri — the world’s largest, with a circulation of 14 million.

So he used his newspaper to cultivate nationalism. That’s quite an admission.

Indeed, the paper was a main force in pushing for the more muscular nationalism now emerging in Japan. Shortly after becoming editor in chief in 1991, Mr. Watanabe set up a committee to revise the American-imposed pacifist Constitution. If MacArthur’s Constitution emasculated Japan by forbidding it to have a real military, Mr. Watanabe’s Constitution, published in 1994, restored its manhood.

A media mogul with the power to rewrite the constitution? How did he manage that?

Mr. Watanabe joined The Yomiuri newspaper in 1950 and made his mark as a political reporter. Political reporters in Japan tend to succeed by becoming close to a particular politician. …Mr. Watanabe ingratiated himself so much with one Liberal Democratic heavyweight, Banboku Ohno, he became the gatekeeper at his house. Politicians seeking favors from Mr. Ohno would ask Mr. Watanabe to put in a good word. One young politician helped by Mr. Watanabe was Yasuhiro Nakasone, the future prime minister. They remain close.

Such was Mr. Watanabe’s power that by the 1980′s, he helped broker major political deals.

The Economist article gives us an even closer insight into Tsuneo Watanabe’s political influence. For example, it describes how Mr. Watanabe mediated opposition party leader Mr. Ozawa’s first contact with Mr Fukuda about forming a grand coalition last November. It also says that after former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s sudden resignation, “Mr Watanabe convened the crucial meeting of party kingmakers where Mr Fukuda was persuaded to run for the LDP presidency.”

Mr Watanabe is more powerful than almost any government minister in Japan could ever hope to be. Privately, Yomiuri journalists tell you that they have no choice but to follow the editorial line Mr Watanabe lays down. They are nowhere near as forthcoming to their readers.

Not only have the Yomiuri’s readers been kept in the dark about these events, so largely have those of the paper’s four national rivals. All that has appeared so far is just two editorials politely questioning Mr Watanabe’s involvement.

It seems Tsuneo Watanabe and the Yomiuri newspaper’s series of attacks on former prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, played a large part in his eventual resignation. And after that series was published, Mr. Watanabe was quoted as saying…

I think I can change all of Japan.

Maybe he already has? His newspaper group dominates the media and he’s incredibly powerful in politics. Before you base your opinions on what you read in the paper or see on TV, consider that your opinions might actually be based on Tsuneo Watanabe’s opinions, disguised as facts!

Now, if I can find a connection between Mr. Watanabe and the American media, we’ll have the makings of a global media monopoly!

16 comments

Yeah if you can control the media you certainly will have great influence over what the public thinks. Someone once told me “perception is reality” and I think that definitely holds true in this case!

I hope LongCountDown continues to gain readers and this is the great thing about blogs. Anyone can have their say and anyone else in the world can read them if they so choose. Bloggers have the power! Well maybe not yet but as time goes on they should have more influence.

“Nah, this blog will be a voice box for Mr. Watanabe as soon as his check arrives in the mail.”

More like when a few very nicely dressed fellows short a finger or two knock on your door and ask you to follow the real Emperor’s suggestions on the direction this blog should take in the future.

I’ve read about Japanese reporters begging foreign journalists to write stories that they were terrified of writing themselves. Also, foreign journalists are barred from the Japanese press pool. I pretty much suspected this was the case with the Japanese media, but now there is a name and face to prove it.

Media, by any means is a powerful tool. Because something is either written in ink on newspaper or simply put in a blog, it is truly amazing how many people will go to their grave thinking that that is fact.
TV reporting has been proven time-and-time again to be full of mistakes and of course embellishing a story is what it seems to be all about.
For 1 man to have such power is wrong but then again, for just five corporations from America to be able to have such power is mmmm sick!! Not only do these corporations control their own media, but they also heavily influence the World’s media and this has been proven so many times in the course of America’s media history.

HI EVERYONE THIS IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM IN THE WORLD AS WE SPEAK ABOUT MEDIA CONTROL. ALL THE WARS AND TERROR ATTACKS ARE LEADING TO THIS ONE AND ONLY …POINT IS MEDIA THEY WILL SHOW YOU WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO SEE AND MAKE YOU THINGS DO WHICH YOU DON’T WANT TO DO !

SO MY SUGGESTION TO YOU ALL IS STAY AWAY FROM NEWS CHANNELS MAJOR ACTION MOVIES AND MOVIES THAT HAVE TODAY’S EVENTS . BLV ONLY WHAT YOU SEE BY YOUR OWN EYES NOT BY TV OR MOVIE SCREEN.

BEST WAY TO GET THIS CONTROL BACK IS BUY ONLY THINGS WHAT YOU NEED ! I MEAN ANY PRODUCT.